Teens arrested after shot fired on Metro Transit bus

Police say two teens are in custody following a shooting on a Metro Transit bus in Dartmouth yesterday.

According to police, Bus #72 was travelling westbound along Pinecrest Drive when a shot was fired before 1 p.m.

Police say three young passengers were involved in a verbal dispute which turned into a physical fight.

Police say the bus pulled over in the 100 block of Pinecrest Drive and that one of the teens fired a gun inside the vehicle. They say at least one shot was fired.

The teens – two males and one female – then fled the area on foot in opposite directions.

No injuries were reported.

Police brought in a tracking dog to locate the teens and a 16-year-old boy was arrested around 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

He appeared in youth court today to face a number of weapons offences.

Police also arrested an 18-year-old man overnight in connection with the altercation on the bus.

John Douglas Marsh is charged with assault, creating a disturbance and breach of a court order.

The incident is a cause for concern for many transit users.

“When you consider it’s on a bus, public transit, it’s very scary right now,” says transit user Bill Pelley. “It’s not going to stop me one bit, not if I can help it.”

Each Metro Transit bus is equipped with several cameras covering all angles. Metro Transit hopes the security feature will make riders think twice before causing a disturbance on city buses.

“It’s a huge deterrent when you have these cameras on your buses and in your facilities,” says transit security manager Doug Mosher.

Mosher says there are more than 1,200 cameras monitoring transit users and that there has been a reduction in serious incidents since they were installed.

“We want to have transit considered a safe zone,” he says. “So if you feel threatened and you step on a bus, that fear will go away. Same with our facilities; come into one of our facilities and not feel threatened and that’s my mission to make that happen.”

Police say the video footage taken from the vehicle’s hard drive has given officers an automatic advantage.

“We interviewed everyone on the bus, the witness, the drivers and so on,” says Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages.

“But the video on the bus was instrumental in allowing us to identify who these persons were and arresting them as quickly as we could.”

Both teens will remain in jail until they appear in court next week.

Police are still searching for a 17-year-old girl in connection with the case. They say they know who she is, but she has yet to be located.

The driver is taking some time off from work while he deals with the emotional toll of the shooting.